Monday, November 26, 2018

Getting My Priorities Straight - It's Shoveled for a Turkey Cook!


With the first snow, you just got to get your priorities straight!  Yes, it's shoveled and ready to go!

I decided to smoke a 13 lb Butterball turkey on this first snow day.  The pit temp hovered around 350 degrees and only dropped to 300 degrees after the cook was around 2.75 hours.  I monitored the cook with two ThermoWorks Smoke thermometers.  I kept an eye on the pit temp and three other probes were set in the turkey.  One probe was in each breast and one was in one of the thighs.

I decided I would let the breasts' internal temperature get to 167 degrees in the breasts before taking the turkey out of the smoker.  Throughout most of the cook, the thigh was always 5-10 degrees hotter than the breast.  One breast was almost always 10 degrees hotter than the other, but towards the end of the cook, the two breasts were only 1 degree different from each other.  The thigh however ended up 10 degrees higher than the breasts.

I used Weber's Kickin' Chicken rub on the turkey and sprayed it with Canola Oil spray to help the skin crisp up and get a nice brown tan.  The wood was Apple wood.

Took 5 days to thaw.  I brined it in salted water overnight.


1/2 Hour into the cook:


2 hours into the cook.  I decided to tent the turkey with some aluminum foil to keep it from getting too dark.  I just laid the foil on top lightly.


Monitoring the pit temp, thigh temp and both breasts:


The final product.  3 hours for a 13 lb turkey.  Not too bad.

I believe the key to the quickness of this cook was the high temp of the pit. 
I cooked with the water pan in place, but did not put in any water.  The higher temp crisped the skin.


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